St George Mining Limited (ASX:SGQ) has announced significant developments in its exploration efforts at the Myuna Rocks Project in Western Australia's Ravensthorpe region. The project, owned by Lithium Star Pty Ltd (a joint venture between St George Mining and Amperex Technology Limited), has seen its tenure double in scale, now spanning 546 square kilometres. The newly granted Exploration Licences E74/789 and E74/790 have expanded the project's area, with the land package extending over 50 kilometres north-west along a regional greenstone corridor, starting just five kilometres north of the Mt Cattlin Lithium Mine. This corridor hosts active explorers such as Fortescue,…
The Australian government has recently announced a significant investment of up to $840 million in the Arafura rare earths project and a $230 million loan for Liontown Resources. These investments are part of the government's efforts to boost critical minerals projects and strengthen Australia's position in ethical and sustainable manufacturing of rare earths. The investment in the Arafura rare earths project aims to support the development of the Nolans Project, a rare earth mine located north of Alice Springs. The funding package includes $495 million from the Critical Minerals Facility, $200 million from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), $115…
It’s possible that a domestically-listed gold explorer, which boasts a not-too-shabby evolving flagship project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, may be looking to lithium to help boost its languishing market valuation. No doubt the WA-based junior is also hoping that a farm-in agreement it made back in 2022 with a fellow exploration house will garner some much-needed shareholder interest sometime in the future. When Austgold Ltd (ASX: AUC) presented at Vertical Events’ RIU Explorers Conference in February last year, its share price was around the 0.05 cents mark, giving it a market capitalisation of $105 million. By the same time this…
A West Australian junior involved in a number of exploration projects is confident it has come across an iron oxide-gold-copper (IOCG) deposit in its home state. Late last year, Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R) said that a review of historical drilling data had “potentially” revealed very significant magnetite iron opportunities at its wholly-owned Whaleshark project, which sits within the Carnarvon Basin in WA’s Ashburton region. Field work conducted in the area by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in the 1990s whilst exploring for an IOCG intersected significant widths of magnetite-rich banded iron formation (BIF) averaging above 25 per cent iron beneath younger…
Joint venture partners Covalent Lithium, Wesfarmers and Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) have opened of the Mt Holland lithium mine and concentrator project. The Mt Holland lithium project consists of an open-cut mine and concentrator, located 110km southeast of Southern Cross in the Wheatbelt region, and a refinery currently being constructed in the Kwinana Industrial Area. With an expected cost of $2.6 billion, the project is supporting 1,000 jobs during construction and 350 jobs during operations. Mt Holland will produce 380,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per year, which will be refined into 50,000 tonnes of battery-quality lithium hydroxide.…
BMG Resources Limited has announced promising results from its ongoing exploration review of the Dragon project neighbouring WA1 Resources’ site in the West Arunta region of Western Australia. Multiple targets showing structural and magnetic features have been identified at the Dragon Project — features similar to those that represent mineralised carbonatites at WA1 Resources’ ground and the nearby Aileron Project of Encounter Resources. BMG’s Dragon Niobium-REE Project is immediately adjacent to and shares a 30-kilometre-long border with the West Arunta Project of WA1 Resources. BMG Non-Executive Chairman John Prineas said: “Our ongoing review of exploration data for the West Arunta…
Pantera Minerals Limited has announced a substantial expansion of its Smackover Brine Project in North America, with the acquisition of 3,553 acres, representing a 26 per cent increase in leased acreage. The company's total net leased acreage now surpasses 17,000 acres. The bulk of the new acreage comes from a key lease with a mineral owner covering 2,194 acres, placing Pantera in a unique position of strength. This expansion not only enhances the project's scalability but also consolidates Pantera's control, with 100 per cent ownership of the project now under its purview. Pantera, the sole junior company listed in the…
Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) has produced nine kilograms of the key permanent magnet alloy Neodymium Praeseodymium (NdPr) at its commercial pilot plant in South Korea. ASM is now progressing an agreement with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) to produce a sample 600kg of permanent magnets for Korean industry. ASM’s production of titanium and key permanent magnet metals, using its patented high purity metallisation process, has resulted in 'continued interest' from leading Korean companies and government organisations. This has led to ASM acquiring its joint venture partner, Zirconium Technology Corporation (Ziron Tech), to continue the development of their clean…
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited is about to commence its planned exploration program at its 80 per cent owned Oracle Ridge Project near Tucson, Arizona. An initial diamond drilling program for approximately 2,000 metres is expected to commence in the coming days, with the drilling contract awarded to international drilling company, Boart Longyear. The drill rig is currently undergoing regular servicing and is planned to mobilise to site in the next few days. Site access, services and initial drill pads are in place for drilling. The initial drilling program will target extensions to high-grade portions of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate…
Mayur Resources Limited’s Central Cement and Lime Project (CCL) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) has taken a large step closer to development, with the PNG Government recently granting the project a 20-year mining lease. This grant is the final statutory approval required to allow construction to commence on the vertically integrated manufacturing facility, located 25 kilometres north-west of Port Moresby, which has the potential to meet 100 per cent of PNG’s cement, clinker and quicklime requirements. The project’s co-located quarry, plant site and deep draft wharf are expected to enable low operating costs while providing direct access to both seaborne…
Rio Tinto has approved an additional investment of almost $200 million to progress the next stage of the development of the lithium-borate Jadar project in Serbia. This will primarily fund the feasibility study, including the completion of detailed engineering designs, as well as permitting and land acquisition by the end of 2021, in line with the initial project schedule. Rio Tinto Energy & Minerals Chief Executive Bold Baatar said the project pipeline is an important part of the company’s vision to pursue opportunities which are part of the transition to a low-carbon future. “We look forward to working closely with…
Australian critical minerals company, Lynas Corporation Limited, has advised that Phase 1 work on a heavy rare earth separation facility in Texas has advanced to the contract phase and that Lynas and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) have signed a contract for this work. Phase 1 funding provided by the DoD will enable Lynas and its U.S. partner Blue Line to complete a detailed market and strategy study as well as detailed planning and design work for the construction of a heavy rare earth separation facility. In line with DoD Phase 1 milestones, Lynas expects this work to be…
Endeavour Mining has made further success from its ongoing exploration program at the La Plaque discovery, part of its flagship Ity mine in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, with a 43 per cent increase in Le Plaque’s Indicated resource and the confirmation of mineralisation for seven additional nearby targets. In the first half of 2020, exploration efforts continued to be focused on the Floleu license, located only 6km south of the processing plant, which hosts the Le Plaque discovery, with a total of 67,195 metres drilled. This amounts to 188,600 metres drilled on the licence since the discovery was made in…
Rio Tinto will soon commence planning for the wind-down of operations and the eventual closure of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (NZAS) following the conclusion of its strategic review which highlighted that the business is no longer viable given high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the Aluminum industry. As a result, NZAS has given Meridian Energy Limited notice to terminate the power contract, which will end in August 2021, when the wind-down of operations is expected to complete. The strategic review concluded that the smelter, which has made Rio Tinto an underlying loss of NZ$46m in 2019, is not…
